Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2021, issue 75, Primates of the World i Eco Kids Planet Magazine

Hello, Eco Kids, and welcome to the PRIMATES issue of your magazine! There are so many different types of primates, not forgetting yourselves, of course. Because humans are primates, too!:) But of all the various species, we dusky langurs (or spectacled langurs, or leaf monkeys, or even spectacled leaf monkeys) are definitely of the cute variety. Being so cute, of course, also means we’re hunted for the pet trade. (Grrrr… just NO!) The name ‘langur’ actually comes from a Hindu word meaning ‘long-tailed’. Otherwise, we could have been called super-cute-monkeys, given we also look like we’re wearing superhero masks! Deep, dark eyes and our ‘spectacled’ markings (hence the name) give us an ‘interested’ look. We are not only pretty but pretty curious! In fact, my favourite hobby is sitting in…

Up to 5,000 monkeys and other primates are kept as pets outside zoos in the UK. Lots of people think it’s cool to have unusual pets. But many of these animals are unhappy because they don’t have enough space, activities or companions of their own kind. Even worse, some are kept in small birdcages and fed fast food and sugary drinks. Importing exotic animals also risks spreading zoonotic diseases. (They’re the type that can pass from animals to humans – coronavirus is one.) Now the government is looking into making it illegal to keep primates as pets. If the plans go ahead, owners will need to get a new licence to show they’re looking after the primates as well as a zoo would. That means open spaces, a varied diet,…

POO PROTECTION! Hi, Rusty fans! AAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHH! That’s the noise you’d make if you were an Asian honeybee and you saw a giant hornet coming (and you could scream like a human). Those giant hornets attack the bees’ nests in groups. They crush, chew and tear the bees apart like hornet-shaped chainsaws! (Even our cat Luke Skywhisker wouldn’t do that – and he HATES bees.) And it’s not because the hornets want to eat their honey. They want to eat their protein-packed larvae (the baby insects). Well, researchers have discovered that the bees have a way of warding them off. They gather animal poo in their mouthparts (blecch!) and buzz back to their nest with it. They pile clumps of it near the entrance and it keeps hornets away! The gross-ponging…

Have you ever wondered whether giant primates used to stalk any of our planet’s woodlands? If we went back over 100,000 years, we’d find a monster ape living in the tropical forests of what’s now southern China. It was an astonishing three metres high! We named it Gigantopithecus. These fruit-eating giants died out when the climate changed. Their forests shrank and grasslands replaced their fruit trees. Maybe the apes refused to eat their greens! Do huge, ape-like creatures still exist, hiding in remote wild places? Believers in Bigfoot think so! They describe this huge mystery creature – or species – as half-human, half-ape. It’s said to walk upright through the forests of north-west America and western Canada. Many people claim to have encountered it. Giant footprints have been discovered, too…

Have some sensory fun making this 3D picture using your fingerprints and nature! What you need: Glue & paintbrush String Tree clippings (we recycled our Christmas tree) Cocoa powder (optional) Brown paint Brown felt-tip pen Reusable wipe Messy mat Step 1: Glue down your piece of string for the base of the branch. Leave to dry. Step 2: Paint the top part of your index finger. Press down to make a monkey head. Repaint your finger before doing the next one. Make as many as you want! Clean your finger. Step 3: Paint the top part of your thumb. Press down just underneath the heads to make the monkeys’ bodies. Clean your finger and leave to dry. Step 4: Draw on the monkeys’ ears, arms, legs and tails. Step 5:…

The first ever COVID vaccination programme started its rollout in the UK in December 2020. While it’s a giant step towards stopping the spread of coronavirus, we’re all likely to be wearing masks for the foreseeable future. For this month’s competition, we challenge you to design a face mask featuring a primate species. Will your mask sport a lemur smile or a giant gorilla grin? Will it celebrate orang-utans or show the fearsome teeth of a gelada monkey? Use your imagination, stay safe and show that you care with your awesome face mask design! FIVE budding artists will receive this exciting woodcraft construction kit from Quay. 5 TO WIN! QUAY MONKEY WOODCRAFT CONSTRUCTION KIT This sturdy wooden model is made from pre-cut plywood sheets that come ready to assemble. Simply…

ACROBATIC excellence Primates are mainly arboreal, meaning they live in trees. This probably explains why they have evolved to be expert gymnasts. ARMS to swing… “I’m the king of the swingers, oh, the jungle VIP…”(Song from Disney’s The Jungle Book) With their super-long arms and hook-shaped, grasping hands, meet the gibbons! These small, nimble apes are probably what you imagine when you think of brachiation, aka swinging from tree to tree! Imagine using your arms to travel, rather than your feet. Imagine the power and control needed to swing up to 15 metres from one branch to another at speeds of 55km per hour. That’s roughly the same as a racehorse! These athletic apes are skilled jumpers as well as super-swingers. They use their perfectly adapted body in a combination of…

‘KNOW YOUR PRIMATES!’ CROSSWORD Across 3. ‘Person of the forest’ 5. A monkey with the longest nose of all! 7. Nocturnal lemur of Madagascar with a very long middle finger 8. The world’s largest monkey 9. A wild man of the woods 10. Bush baby 11. This monkey’s name sounds like a type of coffee drink Down 1. This black-and-white monkey looks as if it’s wearing a suit 2. Male orang-utans’ cheeks 4. This cute little primate communicates in ultrasounds 6. ‘The bleeding heart monkey’ 7. Living in trees Ignore any hyphens in your answers. MONKEY MAZE Help the monkey to find the banana. FIND THE CORRECT SHADOW SPOT 12 DIFFERENCES JOKE CORNER Q: Why do gorillas have such big nostrils? A: Because they have big fingers! A: What kind of…

What do you get wild animals for Christmas? Bristol’s Wild Place Project asked people to donate unwanted perfume and aftershave! The wildlife park’s cheetahs love their strong scents and enjoy rolling around in them. They do that to cover them with their own smell. It’s how they mark the territory as their own. The bears, meerkats and lynxes there are also especially keen on the pongs. Imagine buying someone perfume for Christmas, not knowing it would end up on a brown bear! NEWSFLASH! Twenty precious bandicoots were released into a conservation reserve in Australia in November. Two giant dogs have been trained to protect them from local foxes! Now my turn to write about ‘brown bears’ (hee-hee)……

Aye-ayes are medium-sized nocturnal lemurs that look like they have spiders for hands! Their fingers are really skinny, and they have a veeeeery long middle finger. They spend lots of time tapping on tree trunks and branches with it – as often as eight times per second! They listen back to the vibrations to find tunnels made in the wood by grubs. (It’s a super-hearing skill called echolocation.) When they’ve located some tunnels, they use that long finger to wiggle around inside the wood and scoop out the grubs to eat! We now know that aye-ayes have a sixth finger! It probably helps them to grip on to things when they move through the trees. After all, their super-long finger wouldn’t be much use for that. The extra finger has…